The Philippines 2016 General Election: Services

Smartmatic integrated and supplied the following technical and support services:

Ballot Printing. Smartmatic provided expert technical support to Comelec for the ballot printing operations. A total of 55,736,801 unique paper ballots were printed and verified in record time.

Warehouse Operation. Using its proprietary Warehouse Management System (WMS), Smartmatic provided Comelec with expert technical support for all warehouse activities which included configuration of all the VCMs and the CCS machines.

Training. Technicians were trained to give support to the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) in the correct operation of the voting machines and were thoroughly drilled on contingency protocols to prepare them for unexpected circumstances.

National Technical Support Centre (NTSC). The NTSC provided remote support to field personnel to solve technical or operational issues that could not be resolved without assistance. NTSC was also tasked to monitor the status of delivery and operation of all polling and canvassing entries.

Transmission Services. Smartmatic commissioned the country’s primary telecommunication companies to create a VPN which served as a highly secure and reliable platform for the transmission of electoral data.

Smartmatic delivered a highly secure and flexible transmission solution to send results using any of various modes, such as fixed phone line (DSL), modems using GPRS/EDGE/3G connectivity, and also BGAN and VSAT for satellite connections. Smartmatic provided over 6,700. Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) devices to guarantee all polling centers were able to transmit results, even those located in remote rural areas.

Data and Tech Consultancy Services. Smartmatic provided expert consultancy services to ensure a smooth set up for the election. Teams of experts evaluated the volume of data to be handled, the data centre designs and the technology deployment plans.

Project Management. Our unique project management methodology was key to ensuring the logistic and operational success in this complex elections.

We base our methods on those from the Project Management Institute (PMI) – and we have refined them based on our experience of delivering successful elections for the past decade.

Voter Education. Alongside Comelec, Smartmatic conducted, a voter education campaign to inform all stakeholders about the system, how it works and why it is 100% reliable.

This initiative included a nationwide roadshow for public demo of the machines, step-by-step tutorial videos, nationally-aired TV and radio commercials, as well as collateral materials distributed all over the country.